Career interview questions
- 1. What do you do in your job?
- 2. I am a publisher. I have published a community newspaper, conference newspapers, business trade magazines, newsletters, websites, event programs, quarterly reports, brochures and pamphlets.
- 3. What is a typical day like for the position?
- 4. No two days are the same. One day I may be interviewing, writing, editing, supervising layout and design or a photo shoot. The next day I may negotiate or bid on a new contract.
- 5. What hours do you work?
- 6. I am an entrepreneur so my hours vary. When I worked for a weekly newspaper my hours were 9-5 except on the drop dead date. On the drop dead date I supervised editing and proofing of the final version of the newspaper before it went to the printer. This typically kept me in the office until 2am.
- 7. What school subjects are important for this job?
- 8. To be a good journalist one must have a strong grasp of English grammar and composition. In college I took six hours of journalism ethics classes, several reporting and language skills classes. To be a successful publisher I had to develop my business acumen and an understanding of marketing and how advertising controls a publications success.
- 9. How and when did you decide to enter this job?
- 10. I started writing for my school newspaper in the 10th grade after another class was cancelled. I enjoyed seeing my byline and I was encouraged to do some writing for the Washington Post’s District Weekly section. You can imagine how excited I was to see my opinions printed in my hometown newspaper at that age. In the eleventh grade I participated in a journalism workshop sponsored by the USA Today and won my first trip to New York to participate in Columbia University’s Spring Journalism Camp. In college, being on the newspaper staff helped me understand how the campus was governed. I fell even deeper in love with the craft and the school when I started to learn who the student senator’s were, how budgets were issued and why protests were taking place. As a sophomore, I actually changed my major when a teacher informed me that the average cub reporter (rookie) warned less than $20,000 a year. Once, I learned how profitable publishing was I switched my sights from being a reporter to owning a newspaper.
- 11. What are the most rewarding aspects of the position? What are the most challenging components of the position?
- 12. The most rewarding aspect of recording current events is having the access to people, places and events that most of my peers would never enjoy. I have met just about every athlete, entertainer and politician in America worth interviewing. I covered 9/11 as a reporter to citizens who couldn’t get near the Pentagon. I’ve covered two Presidents and met foreign dignitaries.
- 13. Did you have a career plan that you followed?
- 14. It was hard to get internships in college. To get a job at a paper the size and prestige of the Washington Post I needed to have worked several internships in college and written some award winning articles. The best students in the department got the pick of the best internships and the rest of us had to work at very small papers in tiny towns. My career path veered off course and I ended up working at a weekly African American community newspaper after college instead of the New York Times of the Boston Globe. However, working at that small paper helped me learn the business side of publishing and gave me more reason to pursue publishing instead of reporting.
- 15. What major changes have happened in your career area since you have been working?
- 16. The internet completely changed the industry. Newspapers that didn’t go out of business slashed their staffs and the salaries of good reporters. I went from having a midday deadline to having to post everything online instantly. Bloggers became reporters and ethics became flexible.
- 17. Would you change anything about your job?
- 18. If I could change anything about my job I would like to see more opportunities for minorities. I wish advertisers would spend more money with minority-owned media outlets.
- 19. Did school prepare you adequately for your job?
- 20. I prepared adequately to be great at what I do. However, I could have gone to a college that was known for its journalism program. There are schools like Maryland, Northwestern and Syracuse University that dominate the field of journalism. I went to the school that gave me an athletic scholarship. My school is known for it School of Business and Industry.
- 21. How do you coordinate your family/home/job responsibilities?
- 22. My wife and kids admire what I do, the places I go and the people I meet. Unfortunately, I cannot take my kids in the locker rooms of pro teams or backstage at concerts. They understand that reporting is y job and fraternizing with the subjects is strictly prohibited. My kids want to be reporters and publishers. I get a lot of wiggle room from my wife because she is proud of my obsession with getting the job done right ad my reverence for an old craft.
- 23. What personal characteristics are important in your job? (Working with people, data, things, good speaking and writing skills, working under pressure, working inside or outside.)
- 24. Communication is key. I have to know how to get people to talk, even when they don’t want to talk. I have to constantly think about what would my readers want to ask or what do the readers want to know. Reporters have to accept sharp criticism – everyday your work is being edited and one has to be comfortable going back and doing rewrites. If you want to be an entertainment reporter you have to be extremely patient because celebrities are notoriously late and extremely rude. Reporters that cover politics have to be diligent and continuously research and do background interviews to shift through motives and find the truth. Most importantly, you have to love what you do and take your responsibility seriously.